Abstract
To investigate the effect of wave-induced mixing on the upper ocean structure, especially under typhoon conditions, an ocean-wave coupled model is used in this study. Two physical processes, wave-induced turbulence mixing and wave transport flux residue, are introduced. We select tropical cyclone (TC) Nepartak in the Northwest Pacific ocean as a TC example. The results show that during the TC period, the wave-induced turbulence mixing effectively increases the cooling area and cooling amplitude of the sea surface temperature (SST). The wave transport flux residue plays a positive role in reproducing the distribution of the SST cooling area. From the intercomparisons among experiments, it is also found that the wave-induced turbulence mixing has an important effect on the formation of mixed layer depth (MLD). The simulated maximum MLD is increased to 54 m and is only 1 m less than the observed value. The wave transport flux residue shows a dominant role in the mixed layer temperature (MLT) changing. The mean error of the MLT is reduced by 0.19 °C compared with the control experiment without wave mixing effects. The study shows that the effect of wave mixing should be included in the upper ocean structure modeling.
Highlights
Vertical mixing of the ocean is known to be one of the most important processes in regulating the sea surface temperature (SST) and mixed layer structure, which are two key ocean factors that control the exchange of heat and momentum between the ocean and atmosphere
More attention has been paid to the role of the waves which believed to be the primary reason for the insufficient vertical mixing in the upper ocean
Wang and Qiao [25] introduced the mixing effect of wave-induced turbulence in the ocean current model, and the results show that ocean waves have a significant influence on the decline of SST and deepening of the mixed layer depth (MLD) during a tropical cyclone (TC)
Summary
Vertical mixing of the ocean is known to be one of the most important processes in regulating the SST and mixed layer structure, which are two key ocean factors that control the exchange of heat and momentum between the ocean and atmosphere. Further studies have shown that the wave breaking generated turbulence is mostly confined to the surface layer with their energy dissipated locally at a depth of the order of the wave amplitude [19,20]. All these efforts gave us a strong hint that wave could not be neglected in the study of ocean dynamics. There are many other deficiencies in the simulation results under TC conditions, such as large differences in the range, intensity and spatial structure of sea surface cooling, offset of the strong cooling zone, and abnormal structure of the upper mixed layer and so on.
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